In recent years, poker has become very popular. Numerous variations of poker exist, including Five Card Draw, Three-card Poker, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Hold'em (also called Texas Hold'em), Omaha (also called Omaha Hold'em), and Pai-Gow Poker. The variations in these games generally differ in the manner in which cards are dealt and in the manner and frequency in which bets are placed. Various criteria may also be used to determine the winning hand, including highest ranking hand, lowest ranking hand (Low-Ball), and where the high and low hands each win half of the pot (High-Low).
The number of cards dealt depends on the particular variation of poker being played. For example, in Five Card Draw Poker, the player gets five cards dealt face up from a 52 card deck of playing cards. The player can discard none, one, a plurality or all of the five cards. Each discarded card is replaced with another card from the deck. After the replacement, the cards are evaluated for winning combinations. For a five card poker game, there are ten general categories of hands, ranked from highest to lowest, as shown in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1Ranking of Five Card Poker Hands by CategoryRankNameExample1Royal Straight FlushA  K  Q  J  10 2Straight FlushK  Q  J  10  9 3Four of a KindJ  J♥ J♦ J  3 4Full HouseA♥ A♦ A  6♦ 6 5FlushA  J  8  6  2 6Straight8♦ 7  6  5  4 7Three of a KindQ  Q♥ Q♦ 6♦ 2 8Two Pair8♦ 8♥ 5♥ 5  2 9One PairK♦ K  8  7  2♥10High CardA♥ 10  7♦ 5  3 
Within each category, hands are ranked according to the rank of individual cards, with an Ace being the highest card and a two being the lowest card. There is no difference in rank between the four suits of cards. All hands can be ranked in a linear ranking from highest to lowest. Because suits are all of the same value, however, there are multiple hands that have identical rankings.
In typical Three-card Poker games, the player plays against a dealer hand. The player is dealt a total of three-cards to form a player hand. The dealer hand also includes a total of three-cards. In certain known Three-card Poker games, the initially dealt player hand and dealer hand are final and there is no option to replace or draw any new cards. Certain variations of Three-card Poker include one or more side-games. One side-game is commonly referred to as the Pair Plus game. In this side game, the player wages on whether or not the player will be dealt a pair or better. Certain gaming establishments allow wagering on either of the games and other gaming establishments require a player to make an Ante Bet on the base game in order to participate in the Pair Plus portion of the game.
In one common multiplayer version of Three-card Poker, there are three wagering areas at each player position on a gaming table. One wagering area labeled Pair Plus is where the player puts a wager on the Pair Plus game. For the base game, there are two wagering areas labeled Ante and Play. The game starts with a player placing a wager in the Pair Plus and/or Ante circle. After all the players have placed their wagers, the dealer deals three-cards face-up to each player. In general, if a player has wagered an Ante, they must make a decision to fold or continue playing after looking at their hand. If the player folds, the Ante wager is forfeited without the player having ever determined if his/her hand would have beaten the dealer's hand. If a player wishes to continue, the player is required to place an additional wager (in the Play wagering area) equal to their Ante bet. For example, if a player wagered five credits on the Ante bet, the Play wager would also need to be five credits. Accordingly, the player can make a relatively small initial wager to see their cards and determine if they want to continue with the game.
After all the players have determined whether to forfeit or continue playing, the dealer reveals his/her three-card hand. According to certain Three-card Poker rules, the dealer must qualify with a hand of rank of at least Queen or better for play to continue. If the dealer's hand rank is lower than a Queen high, all active players are paid even money for their Ante wager even if their hand is a lower hand than the dealer hand. Also, the Play wager is returned to the player. If the dealer's hand qualifies, then the dealer's hand is compared to the player's hand. If the player's hand outranks the dealer's hand, the player is paid even money for both the Ante wager and the Play wager. If the dealer's hand beats the player's hand, the player loses both wagers. If the rank of the player's hand is the same as the dealer's hand the player wins the wager or pushes depending on the house rules.
The hand rankings for Three-card Poker are different than the hand rankings for Five Card Poker, as listed in Table 1 above. This is because the mathematical probabilities of making certain hands are different for Three-card Poker and because there are less cards in a given hand (e.g., a player cannot achieve two-pair when there is only three-cards in a hand). The Three-card Poker hands are generally ranked from the highest to the lowest as shown in Table 2 below.
TABLE 2Ranking of Three-card Poker Hands by CategoryRankNameExample1Royal Straight FlushA  K  Q 2Straight FlushK  Q  J 3Three of a KindQ  Q♥ Q♦4Straight8♦ 7  6 5FlushA  J  8 6One PairK♦ K  8 7High CardA♥ 10  7♦
The Pair Plus wager is based only on whether a player's three-card hand has a pair or higher. The Pair Plus wager is paid based on a pay table established by the gaming establishment. Therefore, even if the player loses to the dealer, if the player has a hand rank of at least a pair, the player wins the Pair Plus Wager. Accordingly, the Pair Plus wager can be used to hedge against a frustrating loss to the dealer where the player has a good hand. An example pay table for the Pair Plus wager is listed in Table 3 below.
TABLE 3Example Paytable for Pair Plus HandsHand TypePayoutStraight Flush40-1 Three of a Kind30-1 Straight6-1Flush4-1Pair1-1
Other variations of Three-card Poker have a bonus payout relative to a player's Ante bet based on the player's hand if the player has a high enough ranking hand without regard to whether the player beat the dealer. For example, whether or not a player placed a Pair Plus wager, if the player placed an Ante wager, and the player achieved a very high ranking hand such as a Straight Flush or Three of a Kind, the gaming system provides the player with a bonus payout relative to the Ante wager.
The poker variation of Three-card Poker has become a quite popular casino table game. Three-card Poker is relatively easy for a player to learn, and does not take much additional player effort to learn the strategies which optimize average expected player payback. However, the lack of interesting decision making and player interaction can make this game tiresome to play for certain more experienced players.
Other casino card games, such as Pai Gow Poker, include player interaction and decision making elements where a player can set the cards in one or more player hands. In one common variation of Pai Gow poker, the player can form two poker hands out of seven dealt cards. The two hands must be formed into a five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand, where the five-card hand must rank higher than the two-card hand. In order for a player to win a round of play in Pai Gow Poker, the player's five card hand must rank higher than the dealer's five card hand and the player's two card hand must rank higher than the dealer's two card hand. If the player wins, a 5% commission or “vig” is deducted from the player's winnings. For example, a player who placed a $10 wager and wins, receives $9.50 for their win award in addition to having their wager returned. This corresponds to a $10.00 win minus a 5% vig of $0.50, yielding a $9.50 total award. Many players dislike this pay mechanism. Similarly, this discourages players from making off sized wagers, such as betting $12.00, because of the difficulty for the casino dealer to pay out awards with the small change required to make the correct pays. In Pai Gow Poker, there are a high percentage of rounds of play that result in the player tying or pushing with the dealer. The high number of ties can be tedious for certain players. In Pai Gow Poker, a 53 card deck is used which includes one joker card. Unlike the most poker games where the joker takes on the value of any other card to optimize a hand, Pa, Gow has special rules that allow a joker to complete a flush or a straight, otherwise the joker is evaluated as an Ace. Another Pai Gow Poker variation relative to most poker games, is in the evaluation of the hand with the values A-2-3-4-5, In standard poker, a hand with 2-3-4-5-6 (of different suits) would be evaluated as ranking higher than the hand A-2-3-4-5 (of non-matching suits). In Pai Gow Poker, A-2-3-4-5 is considered the 2nd highest ranked straight, higher than 9-10-J-Q-K and just lower than the highest ranked straight, 10-J-Q-K-A. These rule differences from standard poker make Pai Cow Poker confusing for some players and therefore harder for novices to learn the game.
There is a need to increase the level of interest, excitement and intrigue associated with other types of card games. There is also a need to provide improvements to, and interesting variations of, card-related games such as Three-card Poker. Needs therefore exists for new and exciting poker games with high degrees of player interaction, including a need for new Three-card Poker Games.